Giant Food Corporations Work Hand-In-Glove With Corrupt Government Agencies To Dish Up Cheap, Unhealthy Food

Big Food Is Making Us Sick

The Independent reports that food companies are becoming insanely concentrated:

Increasingly, a handful of multinationals are tightening their grip on the commodity markets, with potentially dramatic effects for consumers and food producers alike.

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Three companies now account for more than 40 per cent of global coffee sales, eight companies control the supply of cocoa and chocolate, seven control 85 per cent of tea production, five account for 75 per cent of the world banana trade, and the largest six sugar traders account for about two-thirds of world trade, according to the new publication from the Fairtrade Foundation.

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This is the year “to put the politics of food on the public agenda and find better solutions to the insanity of our broken food system”.

More people may be shopping ethically – sales of Fairtrade cocoa grew by more than 20 per cent last year to £153m – but, according to the report, the world’s food system is “dangerously out of control”.

Multinational food, drink and alcohol companies are using strategies similar to those employed by the tobacco industry to undermine public health policies, health experts said on Tuesday.

In an international analysis of involvement by so-called “unhealthy commodity” companies in health policy-making, researchers from Australia, Britain, Brazil and elsewhere said … that through the aggressive marketing of ultra-processed food and drink, multinational companies were now major drivers of the world’s growing epidemic of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Writing in The Lancet medical journal, the researchers cited industry documents they said revealed how companies seek to shape health legislation and avoid regulation.

This is done by “building financial and institutional relations” with health professionals, non-governmental organizations and health agencies, distorting research findings, and lobbying politicians to oppose health reforms, they said.

They cited analysis of published research which found systematic bias from industry funding: articles sponsored exclusively by food and drinks companies were between four and eight times more likely to have conclusions that favored the companies than those not sponsored by them.

Big Agriculture says you don’t and it shouldn’t. Armies of Big Ag lobbyists are pushing for new state-level laws across the country to keep us all in the dark. Less restrictive versions have been law in some states since the 1980s, but the meat industry has ratcheted up a radical new campaign.

This wave of “ag-gag” bills would criminalize whistleblowers, investigators, and journalists who expose animal welfare abuses at factory farms and slaughterhouses. Ten states considered “ag-gag” bills last year, and Iowa, Missouri, and Utah approved them. Even more are soon to follow.

Had these laws been in force, the Humane Society might have been prosecuted for documenting repeated animal welfare and food safety violations at Hallmark/Westland, formerly the second-largest supplier of beef to the National School Lunch Program. Cows too sick to walk were being slaughtered and that meat was shipped to our schools, endangering our kids. The investigation led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history.

The bills aren’t identical, but they share common language — sometimes even word-for-word. Some criminalize anyone who even “records an image or sound” from a factory farm. Others mandate that witnesses report abuses within a few hours, which would make it impossible for whistleblowers to secure advice and protection, or for them to document a pattern of abuses.

Ag-gag bills aren’t about silencing journalists and whistleblowers. They’re about curbing consumer access to information at a time when more and more Americans want to know where our food comes from and how it’s produced.

The problem for corporations is that when people have information, they act on it. During a recent ag-gag hearing in Indiana, one of the nation’s largest egg producers told lawmakers about a recent investigation. After an undercover video was posted online, 50 customers quickly called and stopped buying their eggs. An informed public is the biggest threat to business as usual.

An informed public is also the biggest threat to these ag-gag bills. In Wyoming, one of the bills has already failed. According to sponsors, it was abandoned in part because of negative publicity. By shining a light on these attempts, we can make sure that the rest fail as well, while protecting the right of consumers to know what they’re buying.

GW, one thing I wish many “liber”-tarians would learn more about and preach is the importance of enforcement — nay, “revival” — of laws against trusts and anti-competitive practices.

The whole point and promise of using markets (instead of fully centralized planning) is to make our lives better. But, “competitive markets” do not stay that way without gardening, without preventing mergers of large companies, breaking apart corporations that grow too large on their own, the formation of webs of interlocking partnerships (like in the gasoline distribution business), and other anti-competitive practices.

“Liber”-tarians should spend less time preaching “free” markets (“free” of what?) and more time thinking about and emphasizing “competitive” markets, because that’s what benefits us.

gozounlimited

“Indiana farmers have the right to “engage in agricultural operations free from the threat of terrorism and interference from unauthorized third persons.”

NASA studies show that increasingly persistent jet contrails may turn into man-made clouds that are”…trapping warmth in the atmosphere and exacerbating global warming…” NASA goes on to
state that “…any change in global cloud cover may contribute to long-term changes in Earth’s climate. Contrails, especially persistent contrails, represent a human-caused increase in the Earth’s cloudiness, and are likely to be affecting climate and ultimately our natural resources…”

How do we grow gardens and make our plants thrive in aluminum/barium-contaminated soils?

Special Guest Francis Mangels, a retired scientist from the US Dept. of Agriculture, has a Bachelor’s in Forestry cum laude from The International School of Forestry at the University of Montana, and a
Masters in Zoology from Montana University. He also is a member of Xi Sigma Pi and a part-time college professor.

As with political power, the perception of power is over-rated. Ownership’s power rests on obedience to laws.

As with political power, all power rests in the hands of those who join together and act as a unit. A single private citizen, like the single government worker, have the same amount of power, as does the banker, the CEO of Kelloggs, or our President. Each has about the same amount of power. This is what people must understand and accept, because it’s true and correct. Where the confusion lies is the mis-perception of what political power is. The same goes to economic power.

While power and control are close, they are different. The same goes to force and violence. But, it’s how we use and perceive these words which creates more than what’s there. Power, control, and force require acceptance of the receiver to bring on their effectiveness. While I use force without violence, violence requires only a target and no acceptance is required. Force here means persuasion.

This economic concentration to weaponize food for profit is not as harmful as it is. As with our federal government’s lesson taught during Carter’s administration, using food as a weapon is an act of war, and the People can and must take the necessary steps to insure their survival. Pricing food too high, as with other necessities, is an act of war. Producing crappy food is an act of war. Being a selfish bastard is an act of war. The People have every right and duty to take the required steps to insure their survival.

This is what the federal government teaches to the People, not anything else. They teach that might makes right, when pushed, you push back, and when wanting, you take what you want.

Civilization requires civility. Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Feudalism, and Barbarism do not promote civility. Each is as violent and un-civil as they come. The difference is the nice sounding words used to mask the inherent violence required to make each system work.